With these Washington FMU events the issue of Muslim treatment of apostates both here and abroad is catching a wave
by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast, Feb. 20, 2010
Former Muslims United (FMU) leaders Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan and Amil Imani acquitted themselves ably in several meetings and media interviews the group held in Washington, DC on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday morning an interview was held by Matthew Drake of ABC national TV with Wafa Sultan and the FMU contingent on apostasy, that will air later this month.
The strategic meeting with Jay Sekulow, and his legal team from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an international pro bono human rights law firm. The meeting focused on protections for apostates’ civil rights in the U.S., U.K. EU, Middle East, Africa and south Asia. Several African human rights representatives were present at the ACLJ session with the FMU. They told of how Libya and the Saudis are funding massive Da’wa efforts in sub Sahara Africa fueled by Sharia banks and property purchases. Darwish, Sultan and Imani were interviewed by Sekulow of the ACLJ which will air on Cable TV next week.
The FMU Capitol Hill press conference was well atttended by several Congressional staffers and media representatives, notably the Washington Times (read the Water Cooler blog account below) and al Jazeera. The press conference was held to reveal the overwhelming non – responses to more than 111 letters sent to American Muslim leaders. The letters requested that they sign a Freedom Pledge abjuring Sharia death Fatwas against former Muslims. Two responses to letters were received, one from Dr. M. Zudi Jasser of the American Forum for Islam and Democracy, and the other from Dr. Ali Ayami, executive director of the Washington based, Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Saudi Arabia. Read the comments from Sultan, Imani and Darwish at the Capitol Hill press conference in the WT Water Cooler blog account, below.
There was an exchange with an Al Jazeera correspondent during the Q+A at the FMU Capitol Hill press conference. She questioned Sharia death threats against apostates. This despite evidence of such detah threat presented by Sultan. Imani responded to the allegations by the al Jazeera correspondent that the late Shah of Iran and his Savak secret police were worse than the Islamic Regime. Imani cited the the Islamic Regime’s well documented human rights violations including rape, torture and summary execution of Iranian dissidents.
Thursday evening the FMU team had a dinner at the Wardman Park Marriott, site of the CPAC meetings, with prominent UK apostate, Sam Solomon, who was in the US for a series of lectures. We have made arrangements to interview Solomon for the NER.
Friday, the FMU team had a meeting with a US Department of Justice senior lawyer engaged in religious bigotry issues that focused on how to handle death threats against apostates for possible FBI and federal prosecution. We returned to the CPAC meeting site for interviews by Bill Whittle of PJTV with the FMU leaders, which will be up on their website shortly. Many thanks are due to Christine Brim and Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy for faciliating many of these events. Having been present at these Washington FMU events the issue of Muslim treatment of apostates both here and abroad is catching a wave
Here is the Washington Times Water Cooler blog post on the Washington, DC FMU press conference held at the House Rayburn office building..
Apostasy killing of former Muslims could become widespread in the United States if the U.S. government and Americans don’t “wake up,” a panel of three former Muslims said on Capitol Hill Thursday.
The talk, hosted by three members of the new civil rights organization Former Muslims United, marked the first public appearance as a self-proclaimed “apostate” of Iranian journalist Amil Imani, president of the group. Imani and the panel’s two other speakers, authors Nonie Darwish and Wafa Sultan, told the audience that ingrained American religious and ethnic tolerance and myths about Islam are combining to gravely threaten the West.
“Shi’a radical Islam and Wahhabism is coming to this country,” Imani said. “There are 6,000 mosques in the United States now. All the money [we] put into gasoline comes back here and is used in the teaching of hate, violence, etc., etc.” in American mosques, he said.
Sultan, who said she regularly gets death threats and emails from people saying they will cut off her fingers and rape her daughters because she left Islam, said it is merely a myth that Islamic terrorists misinterpret ‘true’ Islam for nefarious purposes.
Westerners “don’t want to judge anybody based on their [religion],” Sultan said, “[But] Islam is not a religion. Islam is a very dangerous political ideology. … There is no such thing as radical Islam and regular Islam or spiritual Islam. …There is only one Islam.”
In the fall of 2009 FMU sent a pledge to 111 Muslim organizations in the United States affirming the right of Muslims to leave Islam and not be punished or killed. (Shari’a, Muslim law, calls on Muslims to kill those who convert or otherwise leave the faith.) The document asked recipients to sign and return the pledge to FMU. Just two groups did.
The response is proof of a silent, creeping tolerance in the West for radical ideology, a development that augurs very badly for a free society, panel members said.
“You might think the threat is over there in the Middle East,” said Darwish, author of “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror.” “The problem is, we have books in America teaching that apostates must be killed. … The problems emanate from Muslim leadership in America. They won’t sign any document that says, ‘We are against shari’a.'”
Western governments seem oblivious to the apathy of supposedly legitimate organizations about apostasy killings and the growing ubiquity of fatwa (death warrant) issuances, the panel said.
“A fatwa of death can be issued from any country,” Darwish said, citing the 2008 handing down from the Middle East by Al Qaeda of a fatwa on Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders for an “insulting” film Wilders made about the Koran. “Fatwas are issued on Arab T.V. on a regular basis. … And these fatwas are following us right here in America. Why we are sleeping and not making a big deal about that is beyond me.”
Darwish said if free reign for such practices continues, they “will change the culture in America. (They’ve) already changed the culture in Europe.”
Tags: Former Muslims united, apostasy from Islam, Washington, DC , American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow, ABC correspondet Matthew Drake, Bill whittle of PJTV, Washington Times, Water cooler blog, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Amil Imani, al Jazeera
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Posted on 02/20/2010 2:23 PM by Jerry Gordon
